


Dust and Lies

by bracket



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Multi, Star Trek Secret Santa 2019, mild warning for someone having difficulty breathing at one point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:42:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21947518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bracket/pseuds/bracket
Summary: For tumblr user jim-t-kirk via the Star Trek Secret Santa 2k19
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock, McSpirk
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42
Collections: Star Trek Secret Santa 2019





	Dust and Lies

"Bones!" Kirk called into the sickbay in lieu of a greeting.

McCoy turned away from the wall monitor, quirking an eyebrow in mild annoyance.

"What is it, Jim?"

"Present for you," Kirk grinned, handing McCoy a microtape.

The doctor eyed Kirk's guileless expression with suspicion, but plugged it into the computer. "A remote uplink algorithm?" McCoy wondered.

"So you can access your medical systems here on the ship to better sync with your tricorder out in the field depending on the needs of the situation," Kirk explained.

McCoy narrowed his eyes at the captain's cadence. _Rehearsed_. Too precise. "Who designed it?"

"Oh, well," Kirk stalled. "It's just a little something our science officer was investigating-"

"Spock?" McCoy demanded. "What does that Vulcan know about _my_ medical systems-"

"Captain, you're needed on the bridge," Lieutenant Uhura's voice cut across McCoy's rant.

Kirk eagerly took the opportunity to leave the doctor to his fuming.

"An M-Class planet, Captain," Spock reported evenly when Kirk reached the bridge.

"With an unusually high number of moons and debris orbiting it. One of which seems to host its own atmosphere."

"Any theories as to why, Mr. Spock?" Kirk glanced sidelong at his science officer. It was difficult to hold back a smile as he watched the gears turning in Spock's mind, so he didn't try very hard.

"Our scans are not fully conclusive, but they suggest terraforming. Another possibility is the moon in question was a rogue planet brought into the orbit of this larger planet over time."

"Well, why don't we go down there and have a look?" Kirk suggested, already getting out of his chair.

"Send for Ensign Lian to meet us in the transporter room," he directed to Uhura. "Oh, and Bones too, he's been cooped up in med bay too long."

Uhura nodded at him knowingly. "Right away, sir."

"Spock," Kirk strode to catch up with Spock in the turbolift, as though there was even a chance he would leave without him.

"Yes, captain?" he raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Present for you, from Bones with love."

"A contradiction in words," Spock commented dryly, but accepted the small box Kirk offered. Both eyebrows raised as he opened it to find a sleek device that offered multiple tools that folded back into the main housing.

"It might come in handy on away missions like this," Kirk added with his most winning smile.

"I shall take that under consideration."

The away team materialized under a purple sky in a grassy landscape broken by vast outcroppings of pastel rocks. A weak orange sun filtered through the sparse clouds, offering an expansive view of a handful of the other moons, as well as the primary planet itself, looming on the horizon. Kirk almost wished he had time to paint, just to capture the swirl of colors in their celestial dance.

The ensign immediately fell into step with Spock, who took point to begin scanning the local flora.

"The rocks are covered in pigment, Captain," he noted. "Possibly oxidized titanite from some manner of geological disaster."

"Well, that'd explain where the locals went," Bones quipped.

"Captain! I think you should see this!" called Lian.

"What've you got, Ensign?" Kirk watched the young crew member brushing dust away from a rocky pillar. "It looks like.. carvings, words, maybe!"

Spock approached at the same time as Kirk and began imaging it with his tricorder. The symbols were etched deep into the rock, standing up to the test of time despite evidence of weathering. Blocky pictures accompanied detailed cuneiform lettering in an ominous display.

"Good find, ensign," Kirk congratulated them. "What do you make of it, Mr. Spock?"

"It is not a language I am familiar with, Captain. But it seems to be a warning of some kind. Note these pictograms here," Spock gestured to a cluster of images over their heads. "The civilization that made these had some clear understanding of their planet as having a relationship with other orbiting masses. I believe this is a representation of this moon, the planet, and this system's sun."

"An eclipse?" Kirk wondered.

Spock nodded gravely. "I believe so. A routine occurrence for a conglomerate of so many units."

"When's the next one?" "Judging by the position of the primary planet.. it is already beginning," Spock replied, looking at the sky.

"Oh, lucky us," McCoy groused.

The monolithic semicircle of swirling greens and white was dominating the visible overhead area. Billowing dark clouds streaked out in advance of it, like heralds of woe. Already the sunlight was being scattered by the approaching night. Kirk immediately flipped open his communicator.

"Kirk to Enterprise." Static greeted him, interspersed with snippets of Uhura's concerned voice. "Enterprise, come in, this is Kirk, do you read me?"

A vestige of sunlight broke through the clouds, and the communicator chirped to life. "-hear you, Captain. You're breakin-" Darkness fell again.

"There must be something in the clouds, interfering with the signal!" McCoy yelled over the increasing roar of the wind.

The away team struggled to stay together and maintain their footing as they were buffeted by swirling eddies that whistled through the rocks.

"It's heavily ionized, Captain" Spock warned, close enough to hold onto Kirk's shoulder to support him. "We must find shelter."

"Enterprise, beam us out of here at once!" cried Kirk, shielding the communicator as best he could. Dust tore through the pillars of rock, spurred on by the shift in planetary temperatures. The party lost sight of one another, but Kirk could have sworn he saw the red-shirted ensign disappear in a flash of light followed by a crackle of thunder. Kirk yelled in alarm and ran to the spot, looking for the crewman to lend his aid.

"Jim!" McCoy snapped. He began to move in the direction of Kirk's voice, but was pulled back by Spock.

"We must head towards the rocks, doctor," said Spock sternly.

Near-blinded by the storm, McCoy had little room to argue as Spock led him to the lee side of the pillar they had been investigating.

Certainly not panicking, simply with a speedy efficiency guiding his movements, Spock guided McCoy along to one of the outcroppings that led into a narrow valley. He unerringly brought them to a cave sheltered from the wind. Desiccated vines clung to the walls, a mockery of once-thriving life. McCoy was struggling in Spock's grip, fighting wracking coughs. He carefully lowered McCoy to sit on a low ledge.

"Let go of me, I need to-"

"As a Vulcan, I am better equipped to withstand dust storms," Spock interrupted sternly. "It's too dangerous for you to be out there, doctor."

McCoy wiped dirt from his face and did his best to get his breathing under control. Inhaling a bunch of dust was certainly not beneficial to a man his age. But no self-respecting medical officer would accept lying down when their crew was in danger. He staggered to his feet, bracing himself on the wall and was close to the entrance when he was nearly bowled over by Spock half-dragging Kirk inside, whose breaths were coming in quick, pained gasps.

"If you've recovered, doctor," Spock said urgently. McCoy needed no further prompting and helped Spock lay the captain on a bare patch of rock. Tricorder whirling, McCoy bent over Kirk and listened carefully to his breathing. While Spock would never admit to hovering, he remained close by in case the doctor needed any assistance with his patient.

"Alright you worrywart, why don't you get a fire going or something? It's only going to get darker out there," huffed McCoy.

Spock stiffened. "Now is hardly a time for name-calling." But he left the doctor to his work.

Once Spock had something to distract himself with, McCoy discreetly queried the ship's database with the recently installed algorithm. "Well I'll be damned, it actually works," he muttered. From there it was a simple matter to eliminate the ionized dust particles in Kirk's lungs and soon he was breathing evenly in sleep. By the time he was finished, he was surprised to see Spock had cleared away a large patch of vines and fashioned a cheerfully burning fire with a protective ring of stones around it. There were even piles of loam heaped into what could potentially be called beds.

"Well that was fast," McCoy said, impressed in spite of himself.

"The captain gifted me an omnitool for away missions before we left. Perhaps this is not what he had in mind for its first use, but it has been successful nonetheless," Spock paused but appeared to quickly arrive at a decision to do something unpleasant. "Thank you, doctor."

"What are you thanking me for?" McCoy countered, baffled. "If anything, I should be thanking _you_. The microtape you programmed for my tricorder worked wonders on getting Jim's lungs straightened out."

"What microtape?"

Kirk gradually woke up to the sound of a crackling fire and the low murmur of voices. For a moment, he was back on Earth in Iowa with his family.. but the crew of the Enterprise was his family now. He opened his eyes and saw his first officer and chief medical officer in a deep and seemingly unusually civil conversation. Spock looked past McCoy's shoulder and spotted Kirk. His eyebrows rose in an expression that would have been a wild grin on a human.

"Well, Jim, you're awake," McCoy said archly. "How're you feeling?"

"Much better, thanks," Kirk replied, looking between the two of them.

They looked like they were in cahoots on a secret and that made the hairs stand up on the back of Kirk's neck.

"Dr. McCoy and I were having a frank discussion while you were unconscious, captain," Spock said, schooling his expression back to its usual neutrality.

"Funny thing, Jim," McCoy drawled. "Spock can't seem to recall anything about a certain medical upgrade you insisted he was responsible for."

"Likewise, McCoy insists he has never even seen a device like the omnitool you gave me," Spock picked up the line of inquiry without missing a beat.

"Care to explain?" McCoy delivered the finishing blow.

Kirk withered under the force of the combined knowing looks from the two people in the galaxy he was closest to. "Alright, alright," he raised his hands as though in surrender. "I may have.. fibbed a little."

"Fibbed?" McCoy interjected. "Well, I thought.. As captain, it's good to have goodwill among one's officers, and I figured.. If it helped you two not be at each other's throats for a change.." he trailed off sheepishly.

"Apology accepted, Captain," Spock rescued Kirk from his embarrassed floundering. "Though perhaps in the future it would be better to avoid gifts with deception." McCoy nodded in agreement.

Kirk grinned at the two of them. "More of this in the future, eh?"

"Don't push it," McCoy rolled his eyes.

Overnight, dust had all but closed off the entrance to the cave. A hand scraped away some of the debris and the concerned face of Ensign Lian poked through the opening.

"The signal from Dr. McCoy's tricorder is coming from in here!"

"Well done, lad, we'll have them out from under this rock in no time," Scotty clapped the ensign on the shoulder. "I knew they couldn't be far from where we beamed you out of that storm."

Scotty crouched to get an idea of how long it would take to clear the entrance enough for a person to crawl through and stared, stunned at the scene inside the cave. Spock was sitting cross-legged on the ground next to the smoldering remains of a small campfire. The doctor and captain were on either side of him, sound asleep. Spock himself was nodding heavily, head tilting lower and lower every time his cheek brushed one of the other men's hair.

"Maybe we can let 'em sleep a few more hours," Scotty murmured, smiling and shaking his head fondly.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been about twenty years since I've publicly posted any fanfiction, haha! This was fun to write and the Secret Santa was a blast to be a part of!  
> Jim-t-kirk, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!!


End file.
